


Biodegradable

by Justphoenix



Category: Broadchurch, Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Ending, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 12:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17488334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justphoenix/pseuds/Justphoenix
Summary: Hardy sat across from her. “None of this is going to be easy to hear. Joe has confessed to Danny’s murder.”Ellie was too stunned to say anything. Her husband? A murderer? A million thoughts flashed through her head in an instant.“Except for one thing: it’s not Joe. It’s not even human.”An alternate ending to S1E8 of Broadchurch





	Biodegradable

**Author's Note:**

> Because all David Tennant roles are the Doctor undercover.

“Interview terminated at 1:33pm.” DI Hardy stopped the recording. “Take him” he nodded to the guards.

“Sir, that’s my suspect!” Ellie protested as Nige was led away.

“Miller-Ellie-sit down. It’s not him. I’ll explain.”

Ellie obeyed, caught off guard by the use of her first name and the change in his tone. What was wrong? Had something happened to Tom? 

Hardy sat across from her. “None of this is going to be easy to hear. Joe has confessed to Danny’s murder.”

Ellie was too stunned to say anything. Her husband? A murderer? A million thoughts flashed through her head in an instant.

“Except for one thing: it’s not Joe. It’s not even human.” 

“What?” Of all the things that Hardy would have said next, that was the last one she should have expected.

“That thing in there, posing as your husband, it’s an Auton. A piece of living plastic, controlled by an external consciousness. “

“No, no, no, that can’t be!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been living all this time with…a plastic alien? But it’s Joe! It’s definitely him.”

“ It has all of Joe’s memories, and it can replicate him very well. But it’s not him.”

" For how long?”

“Not long. A few days at most. When I met Joe previously I didn’t detect anything. But we have to stop it and its cohorts before they destroy the planet.” 

“Is Joe okay?” her emotions shifted from shock to denial to worry.

“I don’t know. I’ve been looking for the Autons since I arrived two months ago, but they’ve put up signal attenuators so I couldn’t track them down. I wasn’t sure if Danny’s murder was related or not, but I suspected it was. These new models of Autons, they’re so lifelike, I can’t tell them from a human without doing lots of scanning. I finally found one!  
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you anything. Until I had confirmed an Auton identity, I couldn’t risk blowing my cover to anyone. I didn’t know who was listening, who’d been replaced…”

Ellie had so many questions. “But why would these…Autons…want to kill Danny? Why did they come here? How did you know about them? And what happened to your accent?”

“Oh! I’m not undercover anymore, I can drop the Scotsman bit.” he smiled. He was about to continue when they heard a loud “Ding!” and a trail of smoke came out of his jacket. “Ohhhhh, yes!….hot hot hot!” he pulled the smoking thing out of his jacket, wincing as he handled it. Ellie looked it over-a mess of metal parts and wires “What is that?”

“Auton tracker! Now that I had one in custody, I was able to recalibrate the scanner to look for signs of the central consciousness and bam! Found it!” He stood up. “We need to follow the signal, now! Hurry, Ellie, there’s no time to waste!” He opened the door and started running down the hall. 

She trailed after him “Sir, wait! Should you be running, you know, with your heart?!”

“Right, thanks for reminding me!” He rummaged around in his pockets, took out a vial, another ridiculous gadget, and a thin metal rod. He swallowed the contents of the vial, and he pointed the rod at the gadget and held it to his chest.  
“See Ellie, the thing is, I’m not human either. In order to avoid detection by the Nestene consciousness, I had to shut off one of my hearts. I’m not Alec Hardy. I’m called the Doctor, I’m a Time Lord, and I have _two hearts_.”

Ellie stared at him with he mouth hanging open. Hardy was an alien? 

“This? Oversimplified version, acts like a defibrillator. I just took meds to restart the second heart, and this will reset the electrical sign…aaah!” He suddenly fell back on the floor. 

Ellie rushed over and helped him up “Are you okay, sir?”

“I’m great!” He stood up. “Now I can do all the running I want! Which is good because we need to get to the Autons before they realize I’m on to them. _Allon-sy!_ ” And he was off to the parking lot. Ellie trailed after him. She wasn’t sure this alien business was real, but Hardy wasn’t the type to screw around. And if Joe was in trouble, she needed to help him.   
—  
Ellie drove as the Doctor held his scanner out the window. He hadn’t stopped talking since they’d set off. He’d talked at length about Autons, then he rambled on some technical gobbledygook she didn’t follow. He paused periodically to direct her.

“Why did these..Autons…come here?” she asked when she could get a word in.

“Not a clue. I’d been tracking them down in Sandbrook. I was nearly on to them before they got away. The chief refused to believe aliens were involved-bit thick. He put out the story about the botched evidence to cover up what really happened.”

“Did they kill those girls?” 

“Yeah” his tone, previously animated, turned dejected. “They saw too much. I suspect the same thing happened to Danny.”

“Why kidnap Joe and have him confess?”

“They learned from their mistakes. Killing people in big cities like London, hardly anyone notices. But in a small town, it’s big news. They saw the attention the girls’ deaths, and then Danny’s death, caused. Have someone confess, everyone stops getting nosy. Turn here!” he suddenly exclaimed.

She turned, heart thumping. If the Doctor was right, her friends, family, and neighbors were all in terrible danger. 

“What did you do with the…Auton Joe?” she asked.

“I sent him home. On bail.”

“You did _what_?!” she screamed “What if he tries to hurt my kids?!”

“He doesn’t know I’m on to him.” The Doctor said “And he hasn’t done anything yet. And if we’re successful here, he shouldn’t be able to do anything. If we’re not, the whole planet is…stop here!” the Doctor ordered. The only building around was…

“The church? Are these religious aliens?” she exclaimed.

“Churches can be great sources of power, Ellie. Old buildings, full of history, durable…let’s go inside.”

\--  
The door was locked, but the Doctor opened it with his metal rod-the sonic screwdriver, he called it.

“Can you try calling Coates? Ask him to meet us here.” he asked. He looked around the empty pews and altar, scanning with his detection advice. Her call to   
Reverend Coates went to voicemail. She looked around, but didn’t notice anything unusual until…

“Sir? Under the door over there. It’s glowing.” She said. She felt a chill.

“Where does that door lead?” he looked up from where it looked like he was fiddling with something on the wall.

“The basement.” She said “We used to have potlucks down there when I was little, though we haven’t done that in many years.”

The Doctor opened the door with the sonic. There was a faint glow where they could make out the steps. When they reached the midpoint of the stairs, Ellie stopped.   
The church basement, previously filled with a tiled floor and boxes of holiday decorations, had been transformed into a small cavern. In the center of the cavern was a pit that was the source of the glow.

“The Nestene Consciousness” the Doctor whispered. “I don’t think they’ve noticed us yet, but be quiet. See over there?” He gestured to the opposite side, where several mannequins stood upright and unmoving, like toy soldiers. “Guards, but currently inactive. “

The Doctor held up the sonic to the walls. “Interesting.” He whispered “There’s traces of an element here, allochromium. It’s extremely rare, the geologic conditions have to be…”

“I don’t need a science lesson! Why do they want it?” she furiously whispered

“It’s extremely powerful. Even a few grams could power a spaceship for millenia. They must have found a pocket of allochomium on their scanners, traced it to the south of England, and set up the operation.”

“But wouldn’t the reverend noticed something was happening?” whispered Ellie.

“Oh, I noticed all right. In fact, I arranged the whole thing.” boomed a voice behind them. They turned around to find Coates laughing. Ellie felt a pair of hands grab her from behind. She struggled but wasn’t able to move. She looked over at the Doctor, who was in the same predicament. 

—

“What have you done with Coates?” The Doctor asked.

“Paul Coates-as a human-never existed. I _am_ him. I assumed this form in order to build this operation.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Years. I was a scout, preceding the Consciousness’ arrival. It’s so hard for the Church to find good vicars these days, it was easy to infiltrate.”

“So you operate independently of the Consciousness then?”

“Yes. We have found several pockets of allochromium in this area, though this is the largest. Soon we will have enough to power our fleet. You won’t defeat us this time, Doctor.” He smirked.

“Let Ellie go. She’s not a part of this.” Beads of sweat trickled down the Doctor’s face.

“Not a chance.”

“Joe…?” she left the question unanswered.

“Under guard. We’re going to replace him with my ‘brother’ once he’s released from your jail. Nobody will believe what happened after his confession. You two, on the other hand, like the boy, have seen too much.” His reached forward, and his hand flipped open to reveal a gun. 

Ellie squirmed against her captor. His arms were solid. She felt like she was burning up. She thought of her boys, and wished she could say goodbye to them. 

“Yeah, but there’s just one thing.” The Doctor said. “Have you noticed it’s getting hot in here?”

“What sort of nonsense are you talking about?” asked Coates. “Stop stalling!”

“Oh, right, in order to make you more lifelike, to give you an independent consciousness, they had to turn down the heat sensors. Tradeoffs. No matter how advanced technology gets, there’s always tradeoffs. I turned up the thermostat while we were upstairs, and redirected the heat to come down here.”

“We may be made of plastic, but we’re not going to melt, Doctor.” Coates scoffed. 

“No, but it’s going to make my plastic-eating nanoparticles active.” He smiled. He shook free of his captor, whose fingers were crumbling.  
He pulled a spray container out of his coat pocket, and sprayed the injured mannequin in the chest. “They contain an enzyme, very efficient, but the nanoparticles are dormant until reaching a certain temperature…which we have just reached. Before we headed downstairs, I applied the nanoparticle solution to my coat. When your goon came in contact, it was just a matter of time!” The mannequin slumped to the floor, a large cavity in its chest. He quickly sprayed the solution on the mannequin holding Ellie, who broke free. “An old friend of mine, Liz, developed these. Brilliant, she is.” he told her.

Coates started to run away, but Ellie tackled him. “You’re not going anywhere!” Meanwhile, the Doctor was running towards the pit, but there was a bright light and the material vanished. “Argh! Transmat beam!” he grunted. He turned back to Ellie and Coates.

“Doctor, maybe we can make a deal.” He said. “Share the supply?” 

“Here’s the only deal we’re going to make. The Nestene are going to stay off this planet…and you’re going to be biodegradable.” He sprayed Coates.

—  
Ellie looked around, calming herself. The remaining mannequins slumped over. “They were controlled by the Consciousness. It’s out of range now.” They walked over to an alcove behind the mannequins. Inside, they found a bound and gagged Joe.

“Joe!” Ellie cried. She untied him and they hugged each other. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m a little banged up and bruised, but I’ll be all right. What were those things?”

“We’ll explain. Let’s get out of here.”

—  
At the Miller household, they’d found Joe’s Auton double slumped over at the kitchen table. They quickly degraded it, except for the head “I’d like to save the head. It might help me track the Consciousness.” He said.

“What happens now?” Joe asked.

“Ellie and I are going back to the station. We’re going to say Coates killed Danny, and he died when we tried to apprehend him.” The Doctor continued ” We chased him down the beach. He tried to get away on a boat. Fell into the ocean.” He looked at Joe “You were trying to take the fall for him. You’ll be officially cleared of any wrongdoing.”

“What would have been his motive?” Joe asked

“Danny had been running around on the church property. He’d relapsed on the drinking, got angry and strangled him. He hadn’t meant to kill him.”

Ellie spoke up “The family deserves to know the truth.”

The Doctor frowned “Ellie, we can’t do that. It’s too risky. What if they go public and decry you as a nutter?” 

She looked him in the eye “Sir-Doctor-Beth is my friend. I can’t spend the rest of my life lying to her. And if it was my son, I’d want to know the truth, no matter how bizarre it was.”

He nodded. “Very well then.”  
—

Beth and Mark Latimer stood at the foot of the stairs of the cavern. “This is where it all took place.” The Doctor told them.

Beth stood quietly, holding on to her husband. At first she’d angrily denounced alien involvement as “rubbish”. They showed her the Auton head, and she’d demanded to see the cavern.

“We don’t know exactly what happened. But we think he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The Doctor said. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” 

Beth looked at him, tears streaming down your face. “I thought knowing what happened to Danny would give me peace. But I feel worse than ever. Angry. Sad.”

“I know.” The Doctor said. She looked at his face and saw a look of hurt that seemed to dwarf even her own. 

“Are you a father? For real?” she asked.

“I was.” He replied quietly. 

“Does it…get better?”

“Not really. But _you_ will get better.”

—  
Ellie walked with The Doctor to a nearby hilltop. He carried the Auton head in a bag. “I’ll need my ship to track down the Consciousness. Who knows what planet they’ve gone to.”

“So you’re leaving us?” she said. She was disappointed; she liked him a lot better than his Hardy persona.

“Yeah. I don’t normally stay in one place for this long, but it was kind of fun. Going into work each day, having colleagues, living in a hotel. I don’t normally do this sort of thing. I mostly work solo, or with a friend or two.  
“By the way, I have a parting gift. Well, two, actually. One, I put a perception filter on the church basement. It’ll keep people from poking around in there. And two.” he pulled an envelope out of his pocket “A promotion. Congratulations, DI Miller. Thank you for your help.”

She opened it eagerly, then frowned “My new salary is 19,000 pounds? That’s less than what I make now!!” 

“Is it? I’m not very good at money.” He shrugged. “Anyway, here we are.” He gestured to a police box.

“Look at that!” she exclaimed “We talked about those old police boxes in the Academy! Never seen one in person. Are you going to call your ship?”

“Nope, this is my ship. Bye, Ellie. Take care of yourself” The Doctor opened the door and stepped inside.

She still had so many unanswered questions. What should she do if the aliens came back? How was she going to explain this to the diocese? And wait…how was the police box disappearing?!


End file.
